About 5 percent of the seniors in the study had been prescribed at least two medications from the list.
Over the coming year, he was prescribed at least five medications, including the antidepressants Prozac and Trazodone, and an anti-anxiety medication.
Over all, they found that 1.3 million of those seniors, or roughly one in five, had been prescribed at least one high-risk medication in 2009 even though many of the drugs had safer substitutes.
A total of 223,287 hypertensive patients attended public health-care services and newly prescribed at least 1 antihypertensive agent were followed-up for up to 5 years.
Overall, 9,397 patients (67.4%) were prescribed at least one kind of migraine prophylactic agent, including propranolol (43.0%), flunarizine (30.8%), topiramate (23.2%), valproic acid (6.3%), and amitriptyline (4.3%).
Of the 13,951 participants with a new triptan prescription (99.9% sumatriptan), 67.4% were prescribed by a neurologist, 67.4% were prescribed at least one prophylactic agent for migraine.
Thirty-nine percent of the foster care children aged 0-17 on Medicaid were prescribed at least one psychiatric drug.
By comparison, 10percentt of non-foster care children in Massachusetts were prescribed at least one psychotropic medication under Medicaid.
Among those aged six to 17 years who were covered by Medicaid, 4.2percentt were prescribed at least one antipsychotic drug.
Other states in the GAO study had total numbers of foster care children on Medicaid being prescribed at least one psychiatric drug: Oregon -- 19.7percentTexasxas -- 32.2percentt; Florida -- 22 percent; and Michigan -- 21percentt.
Among all SHAS respondents prescribed at least one antiretroviral medication at the time of the interview, 958 (16%) reported nonadherence in the 48 hours before the interview.
